This is the first in a series of articles on pressure vessels that we will publish on our website.
A code used in more than 100 countries for pressure vessel calculation and analysis is ASME, the acronym for The American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Brazil is part of this group, largely because PETROBRAS adopted the code and became a major driver of capital goods production in the country.
During the 1980s and 1990s, the construction of the Angra 2 plant led to a brief period in which German codes such as AD, DIN and KTA were used in Brazil. They did not become established because pressure vessel calculation depends on an entire context, including the materials defined by each code.
More recently, European countries developed specific standards for the bloc, including the PED (Process Equipment Directive) and EN-13445.3 for pressure vessel calculation. Chinese GB Standards and Russian GOST Pressure Vessels are other examples of national codes.
The ASME association is made up of engineering specialists who constantly study and improve the code. A new edition is published every two years, incorporating the latest engineering developments. The first committee was formed in 1911 to define rules for steam boilers and had only seven members; today it has more than 2,500.
The ASME pressure vessel code is only a small part of the association's work. The complete ASME Boiler & Pressure Vessel Code has 12 sections, numbered I through XII, with subsections, divisions and parts within them.
For pressure vessel fabrication, Section VIII, Rules for Construction of Pressure Vessels, applies. It has three divisions: Division 1, Division 2 (Alternative Rules) and Division 3 (Alternative Rules for Construction of High Pressure Vessels).
In future articles we will analyze and compare the main characteristics of each division.